Researchers from the Institute of Astronomy RAS and the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute have resolved a task whereby at any given moment in a universal time scale the position and speed of artificial satellites, the Sun, Moon and other celestial bodies (in the geocentric celestial reference system) can be calculated rapidly and accurately.

This work will be useful in resolving tasks related to information support of cosmic experiments.

With the help of the new numerical-analytical theory of the motion of artificial Earth satellites, developed at the Institute of Astronomy and the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, the scientists have made a program application to determine the precise location and speed of movement of artificial Earth satellites at an altitude of from 800 to 40000 kilometers, which can process high-precision laser observations of selected objects from the Earth and from space. This program has been verified and its operating capacity and high accuracy has been confirmed by experimental data. The new theory takes into consideration a multitude of “celestial” data: factors of a model of the Earth’s gravitational field, numerical theory of the movement of large planets, the Sun and the Moon, and the Tycho Reference Catalogue, which contains information on the position, movement and radiance of almost one million stars.